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Border officials around the world have witnessed some bizarre attempts to smuggle turtles across state lines as black-market dealers seek to sell the shelled reptiles as prized pets and food. Reporter Reid Southwick looks at five of the latest, and strangest, turtle seizures in Calgary and around the globe.

A stunning 59-storey architectural wonder has launched Vancouver into the global league of “super prime” real estate. Vancouver House, yet to break ground at the foot of the Granville Bridge and already more than 90 per cent sold, promises to be a defining architectural moment on Vancouver’s skyline.

CALGARY - Calgary-based CRAFT Beer Market is partnering with First Growth Holdings Ltd. to open the first of five restaurants in the city of Shanghai in 2015. “When I started CRAFT I never imagined that we would be opening a location in China,” said founder and president PJ L’Heureux. “Our vision when we opened was simply to provide an experience to people that wasn’t available in the market. Fresh local food served alongside fresh craft beer all under one roof.”

EDMONTON — Tory leadership candidate Jim Prentice says that if he becomes premier next month, he will conduct an immediate review of Alberta’s foreign trade offices to address complaints they have not been effective. Prentice told reporters this week the review could result in staff changes and foreign offices being relocated or shut down.

Canada’s first Boeing Dreamliner, the new-model 787 that has had aviation geeks buzzing since its first test flight, made an appearance in Calgary on Sunday courtesy of Air Canada. The airline took the opportunity to show off its shiny new plane as part of the festivities celebrating the opening of the Calgary International Airport’s new runway. While the Dreamliner was simply parked on the tarmac this time, Air Canada officials promised that some day, the aircraft will return to Calgary for regularly scheduled service.

Duncan Irving and his father thought they’d found a model tenant when they rented their warehouse bay in southeast Calgary to a man who claimed he was opening a local office for his Shanghai-based lighting company.

A simple dish composed of just a handful of ingredients can bring as much joy and pleasure to me as something that has been fussed over and delicately presented. This year of eating stretched between these two extremes. It was a year that had me feasting at French Laundry — thanks to a persistent friend who spent an entire weekend plugging random dates into the reservation system — and dining at dives that serve up delicious dishes in unassuming surroundings.

The line between restaurants and bars continues to blur. We’re seeing more restaurants that have bar-style features such as big-screen televisions, banks of draft beer taps, loud music and seating at long bars. By the same token, many bars are offering complex menus prepared by skilled chefs, are using real linens and are providing service on par with many restaurants.

With just over two weeks to go until the expected launch of its new regional airline Encore, WestJet Airlines officially took the keys to its first two Bombardier Q400 planes at a ceremony in Toronto on Thursday. “They’re shiny and new, complete with that ‘new plane smell,’ ” said WestJet spokesperson Robert Palmer. “They look absolutely gorgeous.”

Whitney Foard Small loved China and her job as a regional director of communications for a top automaker. But after air pollution led to several stays in hospital and finally a written warning from her doctor telling her she needed to leave, Small packed up and left for Thailand.

Mayor Naheed Nenshi and aldermen quickly closed a gap in their newly toughened ethics policies, hours after the Herald reported Tuesday that draft rules didn’t require reporting of freebie flights covered by outside sources. The opaque rules around third-party payments for conference travel had already landed Nenshi in his first ethics entanglement of his mayoralty, when in early 2011 an architecture firm paid for his Toronto flight to a symposium they were hosting.

Chatting with MLA Craig Coolahan about the Alberta Heritage Fund this week, a more burning topic of public debate sparked up. Should the Alberta government run its own pot stores? The NDP MLA for Calgary-Klein said the topic keeps resurfacing, particularly as the deadline for public feedback on Alberta’s new marijuana framework wraps up Friday. […]

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